


SG-13: Intro To Bad Luck

by StargateNerd



Series: The SG-13 Saga [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Beware of insanity, F/M, Gen, Here we go, Heroes Fixit, OC Stargate team, and also ninjas, the first in the series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-20
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2017-11-08 04:57:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/439394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StargateNerd/pseuds/StargateNerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meet SG-13: Major Tyler Reece, a sharpshooting worrywart with a <i>tiny</i> addiction to energy drinks; 2nd Lt. Kira Feldin, a self-declaimed ninja with anger issues; and Muki Huzanaka, an alien teen with a penchant for chocolate pudding and striped sweatshirts. SG-13 is the bad luck team at the SGC, even more so than SG-1. So, it makes sense when they get sent on the Atlantis expedition to the Pegasus Galaxy, right? But how is a 'cursed' team supposed to function when everyone else on the expedition is just as bad off as them?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I'm beginning to think that going through the Stargate is dangerous for my health. I mean, it's not just the whole "evil aliens" thing, but if I have to go through one more "ritual ceremony" where the Major and the Lieutenant get hitched, I'm going to accept one of those tasers that Siler has been offering to give me for the past couple years.
> 
> -Senior Airman Simon Wells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! I posted the first chapter of the SG-13 saga! Don't know when I'll post the next chapter, but hopefully soon! This takes place during episodes 17 and 18 in Season 7of SG-1, _Heroes_. Please R &R!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own SG-1, or else Daniel would get a hell of a lot more attention than he does! I only own SG-13 (except for Wells), and not even all of them! Only Kira. My two friends who, sadly, don't have fanfiction accounts at all (I'm the odd one of us x3), own Muki and Reece.

"So what's your guess?" asked Major Tyler Reece.

Muki Huzanaka shrugged. "I dunno. What do you think?"

Reece paused for a moment. "Two-headed alien. One head good, the other bad. What do you think, Wells?" he asked Airman Simon Wells, who also shrugged.

"Trees, I guess," the airman said.

"Disqualified for smartassism!" Reece gleefully announced.

"Is that even a word?" Second Lieutenant Kira Feldin asked, her attention never wavering from the manga she was reading while simultaneously walking and balancing a knife on the tip of her finger.

"Well, it is in my book. What do you think we'll find on this good ol' planet of P3X-666?"

"Bad luck," the redhead replied flatly. She closed her book and put it away, the knife disappearing as well.

"Yeah, but shouldn't Unlucky 13 cancel it out?" suggested Wells.

"Luck is extremely fickle," Muki told him. The alien teen had more than enough experience in that area. "On that note, I predict we'll find an ancient city, or the ruins of one."

"Hey, you're cheating!" Reece protested. "You're looking through the binoculars!" And indeed she was.

Kira perked up, interest piqued. "There's ruins of a city?" she eagerly asked. The 26-year-old was their self-proclaimed ninja, jack-of-all trades on the team, and her current "hobby" was archaeology.

"Well come on, let's get there before Feldin blows a gasket," Reece jokingly warned. His 2IC gave him a glare which he responded to with a boyish grin.

As they entered the ruins, Kira let out a little happy squeal. Some things just shouldn't be uttered by certain people. Ever. "It's in Ancient!" she exclaimed, doing her equivalent of a happy dance, another thing which scared the others immensely and was added to the list of things that should also never be done by certain people.

"Well I'll be," Reece drawled. "OK Feldin, go ahead and… do whatever it is you need to do."

"Um, I'm not exactly the best person to translate this, sir. We'd have to get a certified archaeologist/anthropologist/linguist," she replied with a straight face, though her eyes were averted. Reece stared at her, scrutinizing.

"Aha!" he exclaimed. "You just want to see Dr. Jackson, don't you?" He knew something was up. She never called him "sir" out of habit, or was very modest. It was usually "Major", or "Reece", or some sort of affectionate derogative. Tyler knew that it was just a quirk of hers (hopefully); after all, he had his own arsenal of affectionate insults himself. He grinned as Kira blushed, while Muki and Wells snickered.

Turning back to "competent mode", the lieutenant began to closer look at the ruins while the other three hung around like flypaper. Suddenly, they heard a whirring and clacking sound. A moment later, a drone appeared and started firing at them. "Yaa!" Muki shrieked, diving for cover just in time to avoid an energy blast. The other three opened fire on the drone, but the bullets were just deflected by a force shield.

"Well, that worked well," Reece remarked dryly.

"Maybe if we fire at the wall behind it," Wells suggested.

"Or we could just do this." Feldin produced a knife out of nowhere and threw it, hitting the drone dead on. It stopped, then dropped to the ground somewhat anti-climactically. "Wow, and I was just aiming randomly!" she said in mock surprise. Reece shuddered at the thought of his 2IC randomly throwing sharp, pointy objects around. Or any kind of objects really.

"Well, let's get this lugged back to the SGC. Muki, go and dial the gate up, let the folks at home know we've got a present for 'em." Being the fastest sprinter in the group, Muki took off, making it back to the Stargate in record time and informing the SGC of the drone.

After it was sent through, SG-13 finally got around to studying the ruins. Well, to be precise, Feldin cackled quietly as she curiously examined it while the others sulked around, waiting for someone who actually had degrees and not an online crash course so she could initiate small talk with her crush to get here. The alien sun had reached its zenith as Reece and Wells patrolled the perimeter, discussing Wells's pregnant wife to pass the time.

"So it's a boy, hmm?" the major peered at the photo shown to him. Wells nodded. "Well, good luck there, Simon. I'm sure you'll make a great dad. Me? Ah, I can't even imagine being married, let alone having kids. Especially after that fiasco on P2R-958." He shuddered at the memory and Simon laughed.

"That was hilarious, them trying to hitch you to Feldin," the airman snickered.

Reece flushed. "Well, how was I supposed to know that in their culture bitching like we do is what their married couples do?"

"You know, most people think you and her are together, or at least doing it."

" _What?_  I can't even have a normal conversation with her, let alone live with her! Not to mention the fraternization rules we'd probably be breaking, even if we are in different branches of the military, and besides that, she could probably castrate me with one kick!"

"Well, she isn't known as the Ninja of the SGC for nothing," Wells conceded. A rustling sound caught Reece's ear. He signaled for quiet. Suddenly a Jaffa leapt out from the bushes and shot Wells. As the airman fell with a shout, Reece turned and shot the attacker. He then hurried over to his injured teammate.

"Hey, Simon, are you okay?" he questioned, glancing over him with a cursory inspection while thinking that basic first-aid training was really not that useful right now aside from letting him know that Simon wasn't dead.

"Oh, God, it hurts!" Wells ground out through the pain. Suddenly, they heard P-90 fire and staff blasts off in the distance.

Reece toggled his radio. "Feldin, what's your situation?" He could hear shouting and more weapons fire over the radio.

"Whaddya think? A bunch of Jaffa just showed up and we're under fire!" He heard an explosion. "Damn it, Muki, we need to conserve the grenades!" Just then a new voice came over the radio.

"Major Reece, an analysis of the drone you brought back showed that it sent out a message before it was destroyed," General Hammond started.

"Yeah, sir, we kinda figured that. Feldin and Muki are at the ruins under fire and I'm in the woods with Wells. He's been shot in the back, sir." He thought a moment. "Feldin, how many Jaffa can you count?"

"Well, it's kind of hard since I'm being shot at right now, but I'd say about 7 or 8 at least." The lieutenant's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Backup and a medic is on the way. Hammond out." A couple minutes later, Muki came stumbling through the brush.

"Geez, don't scare me like that! You know what I get like when I'm nervous!" Reece exclaimed. He looked past the teen. "Where's Feldin? And what are you doing here anyway?"

"Giving them a run for their money, and apparently it's better if you shoot the impolite Jaffa with her instead of me," Muki pouted. Tyler chuckled nervously, then rose quickly to go the way Muki had come, back towards the ruins where Feldin was.

He made it there in record time, somehow managing to avoid getting shot. "Glad you joined the party," Kira shouted over the noise of gunfire and staff blasts.

"Holy shitake mushrooms!" Reece exclaimed upon seeing the amount of bullet casings on the ground. "How much ammo have you got there?"

Feldin shrugged. "A lot. Make yourself useful now, will ya?"

For the next few minutes, there was nothing but non-stop firing. If they hadn't been fighting for their lives, Reece probably would've been more amazed at the amount of ammo his 2IC had squirreled away. Then, the back-up Hammond promised came.

"I thought you said there were 7 or 8 Jaffa!" Colonel O'Neill thundered. "Where did you learn to count?"

"I said there were at  _least_  7 or 8, and I was being shot at at the time, Colonel!" Feldin countered.

"How many pockets have you got anyways?" Tyler asked the redhead.

She shrugged. "Few dozen, probably." She tossed out the number casually.

"A few  _dozen_?" Reece blurted. "How do you sew that many pockets into a set of BDUs? Yours aren't even standard size, they're smaller!"

Feldin shot him a glare for the "smaller" comment and icily replied, "Ninja skills."

Reece felt the sudden urge to hit his head against a wall, but Colonel O'Neill had other ideas. "Major, go back to cover Dr. Fraiser! We need another person on the perimeter."

Tyler complied, making a frantic dash for the treeline and trying to avoid being hit by any staff blasts. He took up a post among a cluster of trees not far from where Doctors Fraiser and Jackson were attempting to stabilize Simon.

A sudden flash of movement caught his eye to his left as he saw a Jaffa aiming at the group in the clearing. Tyler shot once, the bullet hitting its mark. The Jaffa dropped to the ground dead.

A few moments and no Jaffa later, the sounds of battle died out. A couple minutes after that, Dr. Fraiser decided that Simon was stable enough to make the trip to the Stargate. Carefully transferring Wells on a stretcher, the group made their way back in relative safety.

As they neared the gate, Reece saw his 2IC leaning on Colonel O'Neill.  _Crap! Feldin too?_  He then saw that it was the other way around; O'Neill was being supported by Feldin, the gray-haired man wincing in pain as he hobbled to the gate. The major gave a sigh of relief, then chuckled as he heard their conversation.

"Well, at least this will hopefully deter that film fanatic Bregmann from trying to interview me," O'Neill grumbled.

Kira grinned evilly. "Permission to kick his ass verbally and/or physically if he tries, sir?"

O'Neill grunted, hiding a smirk. "Permission granted. Just nothing permanent, okay?"

* * *

Emmett Bregmann tried to enter the infirmary only to be blocked by a nurse, who said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Bregmann, but you can't come in here."

"Yeah, yeah, confidentiality, yadda yadda," the documentary maker said dismissively. "But I heard there were some injuries."

Janet heard the disturbance from where she was treating Airman Wells. The petite doctor frowned.

"You want me to knock him out for you?" Kira Feldin asked from where she and her team were sitting, keeping Wells company. Fortunately the airman's injuries had only looked life threatening, and he would only need a few weeks and a bit of physical therapy to recuperate. "I could say that the light hit his eyes in such a way that I thought he was a Goa'uld."

The "innocent" look on the lieutenant's face made Janet laugh. "I don't think that'll be necessary. I would, however, appreciate if you would," she thought a bit for the right word, " _escort_  him out."

Kira grinned and smacked her open right palm with her fist. "That I can do. Watch and learn Muki; how to get rid of an annoying man, whether he be someone who's trying to hit on you or someone just getting on your nerves."

"Awesome!" the alien teen chirped, watching the redhead as she converted throwing Bregmann out of the infirmary into a lesson for her younger "sister". Reece sat back and smirked. It was fun to watch his 2IC threaten people, so long as it wasn't him.

"Excuse me," Kira said with faux cheerfulness as she approached the filmmaker. "Let me borrow him for a sec," she told the nurse, who threw her a grateful nod. Gripping the man's arm, she led him from the infirmary.

"Hey, wait, I wanted to talk to-" Bregmann was cut off as Kira yanked him out the door. "Waah!" he cried in alarm. He was dragged along through the hallway, still protesting. The lieutenant deposited him on his feet next to the two airmen who were supposed to help him with the documentary.

"OK, listen to me," Feldin snapped, her forced cheerfulness gone. "Mr. Bregmann, no one here likes you, much less Colonel O'Neill, who I know you're trying to get an interview with." She rolled her eyes. "Hell, half the base probably knows. So let me give you this word of warning: If you want to live, leave well enough alone." The cheerful smile was back. "Okay, now have a nice day!" With that, Feldin walked away, presumably back to the infirmary.

"Um, did she just curse us?" one of the airmen asked nervously.

"Sir, SG-13 is known for their infamous bad luck," the other informed Bregmann, equally as off-balance. "Sir?" he asked, seeing the documentary maker bow his head.

"All right, that's it! I'm going to get that interview with O'Neill, no matter what!" Bregmann declared, his determination increased tenfold.

* * *

"No matter what" turned out to be Janet throwing them out of the infirmary (not literally, of course), Feldin sneakily placing smoke bombs in their pockets (don't even ask), Muki laughing at the aforementioned smoke bombs, and Reece accidentally dumping pudding on Bregmann's head (that was actually an accident).

By the time the filmmaker left the SGC, he'd gotten about 5 seconds of footage of O'Neill actually cooperating with him, many slides of just smoke -  _damn smoke bombs_ , Bregmann thought - and him coughing, the interviews he had with the rest of SG-1 and other various personnel, and an episode of The Simpsons. Frankly, he didn't want to know how the latter got on there.

The entire base celebrated the filmmaker's departure, and if Colonel O'Neill noticed that one of his VHS tapes was missing, well… it was all for the greater good.


	2. The Purple Pandemic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Purple is not a good hair color for Colonel O'Neill. Just for future reference. Also, Muki takes all the insane stuff that happens to us waaaay too easily. Why can't she have a freakout like Feldin once in a while? 
> 
> -Major Tyler Reece

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is up now! This probably takes place during the ep Resurrection. Simon Wells is out on medical leave, and SG-13 is too wacky for a fourth person to intrude (yet) XD This chapter is a little shorter, but please bear with me! Was co-written with my Watson, a.k.a. Schrodinger, my sometimes partner-in-crime for this series. Next chapter is where things start to get serious, though, I promise.

SG-13 waited at the end of the ramp as the Stargate was dialed, ready for their mission to P3X-932. When the chevrons lit up and the event horizon was established, the team stepped through the big blue puddle.

The first thing that was immediately noticeable was that everything had a purple tint to it. The vegetation was varying shades of purple, while the sky was the only thing not purple.

It was green.

"Holy shenanigans," Reece muttered under his breath, while his 2IC said something under her breath in what he was pretty sure was Japanese. Muki, on the other hand, began to frolic around in the grass and plucked big handfuls of it.

"It's purple, it's purple, I looove purple!" Muki sang as she started to roll in the grass.

"Muki, don't roll in the purple alien grass," Feldin groaned. As she approached the rolling alien teen, the unmistakable blue rays of a zat rang out, hitting the redhead. Before her teammates could react, they too were shot.

Kira awoke with a splitting headache. As she sat up, her bangs fell in her face from where she normally kept them pinned back. She stared in amazement at the purple locks that dangled in front of her eyes. "The fuck?" she whispered in disbelief. Twisting around, she grabbed the braid that she customarily kept her hair in. Yup, it was purple. "Oh, this is just perfect!" she fumed, perfectly imitating Reece's slight accent.

"Okay Feldin, where's the fire, and holy shi… take mushrooms (are good for you)!" Reece exclaimed as he sat up and saw his 2IC's purple hair.

Muki realized the new color of her own hair and started singing, "Purple, purple, my hair is purple!" She was the only one having fun with this; Tyler and Feldin were too busy arguing with each other.

"What did you do?" the self-proclaimed ninja yelled.

"Why do you think  _I_  did it?" Tyler retorted.

"I don't know, but you're always getting in trouble and-"

"Um, excuse me," a creaky voice said from behind them. The three spun around to see an old man come into the room. He too had purple hair.

"Uh, hi," stuttered Reece. "My name is Major Tyler Reece. This is Lieutenant Kira Feldin and Muki Huzanaka. We're from the planet Earth."

"Well, we welcome you strangers," the old man smiled and bowed.

"Well if you welcome us, then why did you zat us?" Feldin asked with a touch of sarcasm.

"Zat?" the old man looked confused.

"The thingies that shoot the blue ray thingies that kinda knocked us out?" Muki helpfully supplied.

"Oh, you mean the Romnas," the old man said cheerfully.

"Uh, sure. Then why did you… "Romna" us?" Reece asked.

"I am sorry. You must forgive our young people. They saw you come through the Ring of the Gods and were frightened of you," informed the old man. "They decided to take no chances. You see, many years ago we were oppressed by a tyrant who called himself our god. His name was Apophis."

"Apophis?" Reece yelped. "I thought we killed that guy!"

"Did you happen to hear the "many years ago" part, baka?" hissed Feldin.

"OK, but why is everything purple? And more importantly, how did our hair turn purple?" Reece asked, ignoring the insult from his 2IC.

"Well, before Apophis abandoned our planet, he did many experiments, one of which resulted in turning the plant life purple. Over time, our people's hair also turned purple, and our skin became tinged," the old man morosely recounted.

"Is it dangerous?" Muki asked.

"No, it just turns everything purple."

"Well," Reece said, standing up, "if you don't mind, we are supposed to check in now, but we'll check back with you folks later, okay?"

"Yes, of course. I will guide you back to the Ring."

The old man made good on his promise, and roughly 15 minutes later they were back at the Stargate. Muki dialed up the gate, all the while humming her "My Hair Is Purple" ditty.

"Major Reece, do you have anyth-" Hammond cut off mid-sentence. "Son, what happened to your hair?"

"Well sir, apparently there's something on this planet that turns things purple," Tyler reported rather sheepishly. "I don't believe it's permanent- is it?" He turned to the old man, who shrugged.

"Our people have lived here all their lives, and so far as I know, none who came through the Ring of the Gods were ever adversely affected." Reece looked through the MALP's camera at General Hammond, raising one eyebrow in a very Teal'c-like fashion.

"Do you believe there is anything there that may be of interest?" Hammond inquired.

"No sir, not unless we want to revolutionize the hair care industry," Reece replied. He heard Feldin give a little snort behind him.

"Well, unless you believe there is anything there that may help us, report back," the Texan ordered.

"Yes, sir," SG-13's CO replied. As the bright blue of the wormhole dissipated, he turned to the others. "Well, I guess we'll be heading on home now."

"Finally," Feldin huffed. Then she turned to the old man, frowning slightly. "Do you have our packs somewhere?"

"You mean the satchels you arrived with? Yes, I shall go retrieve them." With that, he left down the path.

"Should we follow him, or…" Reece trailed off as his teammates shrugged.

A few moments later the old man returned with their packs. "I wish you good fortune on your future travels," he said, giving a little bow. "Perhaps some day you will return here?"

"Yeah, maybe," Tyler replied. "Muki, dial us up, would you?" She proceeded to do so, and after sending their IDC through, they stepped through the Stargate, back to Cheyenne Mountain, and Earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation notes: 
> 
> Baka: Japanese for "Idiot" 
> 
> This chapter was actually about three times as long, but it got way too convoluted, and while Schrodinger does have a good eye for writing episode-like fics, I actually wanted to keep the plot holes for this series to a minimum ^^;


	3. Rising (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not my fault, okay? I don't like the cold, and it didn't help that McCoy guy reminded me so much of several annoying people I've had the displeasure to meet, and... I don't like the cold, okay?? Also, Sumner's got a stick up his ass, and not in a sexy way.
> 
> -Second Lieutenant Kira Feldin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, the chapters from now on are going to be longer, since we'll be basing them off actual episodes. And we get introduced to the Atlantis team! *confetti* Also, we get plot. Oooh, plot!

"It's freezing down here!" Tyler complained, rubbing his hands together.

"Well, we are in Antarctica," Muki replied sagely, a smile on her face as she played with her purple fleece, the sleeves of which trailed just a bit over her hands.

"I don't understand how you can even  _look_  at that color, let alone wear it," the major said, shooting Muki a dubious look.

"Well, it's not like it was our fault or anything that everyone's hair turned purple," Kira commented, her tone suspiciously neutral. "Besides, Dr. Fraiser found an antidote within the week anyway."

Tyler stared at her. "What's up with you Feldin? You hate the cold at least ten times  _more_  than both of us put together, but you've barely said anything since we got here!" The redhead gave no reply, simply looked away pointedly.

"A ninja does not complain, does not show weakness," she said flatly.

"She's just upset that Dr. Jackson's off the base's bachelor list now that him and Colonel Carter are dating," Muki said to Tyler, who grinned.

"Ah, so that's why! Well Feldin, it's probably about time you moved on, you know. I mean, you practically stalked the guy, and-" He cut off as a knife flew past him, barely grazing his cheek. It "twanged", firmly stuck in the wall behind him.

Kira turned, her pale blue eyes icy as their environment. "I thought we agreed never to speak of that again," she said quietly. "And for your information, I did not stalk him." Striding past her CO, she pulled the knife out of the wall, and then twirled it. "I merely happened to see Dr. Jackson drink coffee many times. There  _is_  such a thing as coincidence, after all." The weapon disappeared somewhere on her person. "Now come on, didn't Muki say Dr. Beckett wanted to see us?"

Tyler shivered as Kira brushed past him, her infamous (to him) dark side making the air seem even colder. "What did we do to get on the Atlantis expedition anyways?" he muttered under his breath.  _Well, it's not exactly like we have anything better to do in the first place; the only people I really see or talk to on a regular basis are Feldin and Muki,_  thought the major.  _Still, I have the feeling that General O'Neill had_   _something to do with this. Geez, just 'cause the guy's hair gets turned purple,_ on accident, _he has to take it out on us? I didn't even_   _know he hated purple!_

"Oi! Earth to ahondara shousa, Earth to ahondara shousa!" Reece was jarred out of his thoughts by the dulcet tones of his 2IC, who was currently scowling at the moment. "Are you just going to stand there till I shave your head?"

"You know, it's very unbecoming to threaten a superior officer, Feldin," he huffed, hurrying to catch up to his teammates. "You could get court-martialed for it someday."

"As if you haven't done worse," the redhead shrugged, looking at him through half-closed eyes.

"Hey, I think I found the infirmary!" Muki interrupted their banter.

The team entered the room, which was decorated rather sparsely. Aside from the medical equipment there were a few cots, but that was the extent of the furnishings. At a desk in the corner sat a man wearing a blue fleece. He had slight stubble decorating his chin. At the sound of the three entering the room, he looked up.

"Ah! You must here for your blood test results," Dr. Carson Beckett announced, his brogue confirming his nationality just as much as the Scottish flag patch on his upper arm.

"Yup, that we are, Doc. Well, I assume we are, since all Muki told us was that you wanted to see us." Tyler sent her a look, one eyebrow raised.

"You know me! Things go in one ear and out the other!" she defended herself, almost but not quite pouting.

"Well in any case, that  _is_  why you are supposed to be here," Beckett confirmed. He rifled through some files in the piles of papers on his desk. "Ah! Here they are," he said, plucking a couple of papers from one of the overly tall piles. Looking the results over, he smiled, then looked at Kira. "Congratulations, Lieutenant Feldin, you have the active ATA gene."

"Great! Why am I supposed to be excited again?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Reece sighed sufferingly, dragging one hand down his face.

"Don't take it personally; she's always like this," he told Beckett.

The doctor nodded amusedly, then turned back to the paper. "As for you Major, you do have the gene, but it's recessive, and Ms. Huzanaka does not have it at all. However, I am working on a therapy that will allow people without the gene to gain it through artificial means-"

"Carson!" A man wearing an orange fleece marched purposefully into the room, barely even glancing at SG-13 as he brushed past them. "I need you to try the control chair."

"Rodney, I've already told you, I'm not going to sit in that bloody thing," the Scot protested. "Can't you get someone else to do it?"

"I've already tried everyone else," Rodney said. "You are the only one who hasn't even so much as sat in it yet!"

"That is not true!" Carson seized what Rodney just said like a lifeline. "Lieutenant Feldin here has just arrived, and she has the active ATA gene."

Kira looked up, blinking rapidly as if she was suddenly realizing where she was. "Wait, what? You're offering me as a pig?" she questioned incredulously.

"What?" McKay asked, baffled.

"Uh Feldin, I think you mean guinea pig?" Tyler questioned.

The redhead snapped her fingers, pointing at him. "Yes! That's the English term, a guinea pig, and I can't believe you're throwing me to the wolves!" she huffed at Carson.

"I think he strikes me more as a wolverine," Muki offered her two cents. They all stared at her, trying to absorb the teen's observation.

"Not even going to  _ask_  what that was about," the scientist muttered under his breath, "but you-" he pointed at Kira, "are going to sit in the control chair, as well as you, Carson!" The medical doctor grumbled under his breath, most likely something insulting.

"And just why to I have to sit in this chair thingy?" the lieutenant inquired, her voice deceptively calm.

"Because, assuming you three are on the expedition, which is really the only reason you'd be here getting blood results from Carson, you're going to have to get acquainted with Ancient technology sooner or later, and it's better sooner than later. Besides, we haven't determined the strength of some people's ATA gene, and it's easiest to find it by interfacing with Ancient tech." The scientist finished his explanation with a smug "Ha-you-can't-get-out-of-this" look.

"Fine, but a word of caution," Feldin warned. "You annoy me anymore after I try out your precious chair, and your hair will become the same color as your jacket." And with that ominous statement, she left the infirmary.

Rodney and Carson stared the way she'd gone. "W-would she really do that?" the scientist asked nervously.

"Yeah, she would," Tyler nodded. "Feldin doesn't make threats about people's hair lightly."

"If it makes you feel any better, I think you would look nice with orange hair," Muki smiled. Somehow that didn't reassure Rodney very much.

* * *

General Jack O'Neill (two "l"s, as he constantly reminded everyone), was not a happy camper. Oh, no, he wasn't. He was currently in a helicopter with an almost enthusiastic (for the Air Force) pilot. One simply wasn't enthusiastic if one was an Air Force pilot.

It also didn't help that he was in Antarctica, the one continent that he'd hoped to never set foot on again, seeing as how he'd nearly died both times he'd been there. As statistics go, that was a pretty high rate on the chances he was going to die, or be confronted with a life threatening situation. When he told that to Daniel though, the archaeologist had merely replied, "Yeah, sure Jack. I gotta go, Sam's got coffee."

And wasn't his best friend such the lucky person, to actually  _have_  someone to make him coffee? Even though Jack was a general now, he didn't get all the perks that he thought he'd get. What was the fun of being a general if you had to make your own coffee?

* * *

"I break things like this!" Carson had protested as Rodney manhandled him to the control chair.

"My track record with things millions of years old isn't too good, either," Kira put in as she reluctantly trailed after the two.

"What track record?" Reece asked, rather confused.

"Well, I count you in that category," she replied without so much as a backwards glance.

"Hey!" the major protested. "I'm only about a year and a half older than you! How do I fit into "millions" of years?" She merely hummed teasingly. Muki, for no apparent reason, smirked, a sight which scared him immensely for reasons best left undiscussed.

"This chair has survived the past few millennia intact, I'm certain it will survive both of you," McKay replied rather caustically. "Now Carson, sit down, close your eyes, and concentrate."

Reluctantly, the doctor did so, sitting in the chair for a moment with his eyes closed before he opened them and said, "You see? Nothing," as he made to stand again.

McKay pushed Carson back into the chair. "Look, this time, just try to imagine an image of where we are in the solar system." Sighing, the Scot did so.

"I think I feel something," he said after a moment. "It could be lunch-related."

SG-13 snickered while Rodney merely looked annoyed and said, "Shut up. Just concentrate, okay?"

Carson did exactly that. For a short time it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but then the head of the chair lit up, the whole contraption plus him leaned back, and all hell broke loose.

* * *

 _Oh, yes,_ someone _is going to answer to me_ , thought O'Neill as Major "I-think-Antarctica's-kind-of- _nice_ " did some loopy maneuvers to keep their helicopter from being blown out of the sky by a rogue drone.  _I save the Earth from being screwed over, what, seven times now, I think? And_ this _is the thanks I get?_  Oh, yes, there would be hell to pay for whoever was messing with one Jonathan "Jack" Patrick O'Neill (with two "l"s, don't forget).

* * *

"Okay, Carson, concentrate on shutting the weapon down before it hurts someone," Dr. Elizabeth Weir counseled the doctor, who was fretting over what to do.

He tried valiantly to turn the drone off, but it didn't seem to have any effect as word came in over the radio that General O'Neill's helicopter was still being pursued.

Unable to stay still any longer, Kira growled, "Screw this," slapped her hand on the arm of the chair over Carson's, and thought, very violently,  _ **OFF!**_

The entire outpost plunged into semi-darkness as all the Ancient tech and equipment suddenly shut down.

"Um, oops?" the redhead's voice held a nervous tone that Reece had never heard before. Was it bad that some part of him inside was chortling gleefully at this evidence his 2IC was not always a sadistic self-proclaimed ninja with height issues who was surprisingly cuddly? "It was an accident!" she continued in a somewhat pleading tone, something he'd never heard beforehand either.  _Well, you learn something new everyday_ , Tyler thought.

"An  _accident_? How do you shut down an entire  _outpost_  by  _accident_?" McKay seethed. Tyler's internal maniacal cackling was stifled as a foot slammed down on his. Hard.

"Ow! Crimaniddly Feldin, that was  _my_  foot!" he cried, hopping up and down as he held the offended appendage. "McKay's on the other side of the chair if you want to play the bodily torture game!"

Even in the darkness, Tyler could make out the scientist's face paling visibly at the implications of his statement.  _Ha, take that!_  he thought, a little undeservedly vicious.

"Here, I'll turn it back on!" the lieutenant said quickly. However, when the lights came on Feldin was gone.

"Damn ninja," Reece muttered as he rubbed his sore foot, ignoring the strange glances the others, minus Muki, gave him. Speaking of which, where did she go? "Damn ninja-in-training hellion," he added the description of his other teammate, again ignoring the looks given him by the (more or less) sane members of the expedition.

Said ninja and ninja-in-training hellion were currently fast tracking away from that particular part of the outpost as fast as they could.

 _Great, just great,_  the redhead thought to herself.  _Barely the first couple of days here, and not only have I managed to make a gigantic idiot out of myself, but these are people I'm going to have to put up with for an indefinite amount of time since apparently General O'Neill has screwed us over just 'cause his hair_ accidentally _got turned purple!_  And she was still convinced that particular incident was entirely Reece's fault. Honestly, the man attracted trouble like flies to rotting meat!

"Kira-nee, are you okay?" Muki asked, interrupting Kira's fuming stew. "You've got kind of a scary look on your face. Scary like you're going to cause permanent bodily harm scary." And somehow her adopted imouto had managed to say that with a completely straight face.

"Muki," Kira told her with a sigh, "some day you're going to be one hell of a poker player."

* * *

Finally the day had come for the Atlantis expedition to take what could be a one-way trip to the Pegasus Galaxy, and what was hopefully the City of the Ancients.

"Hey Muki, Feldin, you suited up and ready to go?" Tyler asked his teammates.

"Yup yup yup!" the alien teen grinned, dark blonde curly bangs bouncing against her brown face as she was practically shaking with excitement.

"Ready as one can be when one's about to go on a dangerous mission to another galaxy with maybe no way back," Feldin drawled, smirking.

"Yeah, yeah, drown the rest of us in your pessimistic ninja ways, will ya?" Tyler replied, resisting the urge to stick his tongue out at her because dammit, he was older and supposed to be more mature here!

"You got your "medicine", ahondara shousa?" his 2IC inquired, her voice all sugary and sweet. Gritting his teeth, he resolved not to rise to the bait. Could he help it if his own special drink mix calmed him down some? No, he couldn't, it was just a part of nature! So with great dignity, Tyler huffed and pointedly ignored the redhead.

Everyone gathered in the gate room as Dr. Weir gave an inspiring speech about how the people going on this mission were some of the best, brightest, bravest, etc. As she said that this was the last chance for anyone to withdraw their involvement, she was met with silence. With a proud smile, she said, "Begin the dialing sequence."

As the outer ring began to turn and the chevrons started to lock, Reece heard Colonel Sumner, the military head of the expedition and his direct superior, say to a man he hadn't seen before: "Let me make myself clear, Major. You are not here by my choice."

"I'm sure you'll warm up to me once you get to know me, sir," the messy-haired apparent major replied with a slight smirk.

"Just as long as you remember who's giving the orders," Sumner replied.

As he turned to go join a group of his Marines, the major said, "That would be Dr. Weir, right?"

Reece decided that he liked this guy as he and Sumner held an impromptu staring contest, a smirk plastered on his face. Reece went up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Major Tyler Reece," he introduced himself.

"Major John Sheppard," Sheppard replied.

"Ah, so you're the uppity second-in-command," Tyler smirked.

"Technically, we are the same rank," Sheppard said.

"But you're the senior officer."

"True," Sheppard admitted. He gestured to the Stargate. "Have you ever had… previous experience with this?"

"Two whole years with my own team," Tyler informed him, pointing a thumb at Muki and Feldin. The former gave Sheppard a grin, while the latter gave a little nod. The messy-haired major wisely decided not to comment both that the rest of Reece's team was female, and that one of them barely looked to be out of high school. Seriously, how short  _was_  the redhead?

Just then, the gate tech announced, "Chevron eight, locked!" and the wormhole established itself with the usual "kawoosh" of the vortex. SG-13 and Sheppard both gave themselves a last check over on their immediate equipment as Sumner started to bark out orders.

"Hold it, Colonel!" Weir ordered as she came back into the gate room, slinging her pack on. "We go through together," she informed him stubbornly.

Sumner gave her a glance, then nodded slightly. "Fair enough," he said.

The first group of Marines plus Dr. Weir, stepped through the gate, the soldiers' guns raised in precaution. Sheppard and a young Marine lieutenant went up the ramp to the event horizon, standing guard. After a moment, Sumner's report came back through the radio: "All clear. It looks good."

"Expedition team, move out," O'Neill told the Atlantis crew.

"What's it feel like?" Sheppard asked the lieutenant, as already more people were coming up the ramp after them.

"Hurts like hell, sir," the young man informed him seriously. His somber statement was ruined after a second as he grinned and gave a small, joyous shout as he propelled himself through the wormhole.

"Hey, there's nothing to it," Reece reassured Sheppard as SG-13 followed after them, calmly stepping through.

"Yeah. You would hardly know you're being demolecularized into millions of tiny, itty-bitty pieces," Kira added nonchalantly, though her lips were twisted into a mischievous smirk.

"It's fun," Muki said simply as she followed her teammates.

Sheppard took a deep breath in preparation.  _How did I get myself into this one?_  he asked himself briefly before he was whisked away through the whirlwind ride that was the Stargate.

One the other side, they entered into a dark room that was lit only by the thin beams of light coming from atop the P-90's targeting scopes. "Teams One and Two, secure the immediate area! Everyone else, find an open space and park it until instructed otherwise," Sumner ordered. The soldiers that were coming through the gate acquiesced to their CO's orders, spreading out to make sure there were no immediate threats to the group's safety.

As people began to explore the immediate area, lights came on and doors opened of their own volition, startling the expedition. "Who's doing that?" Elizabeth wondered.

"Security teams, any alien contact?" Sumner inquired over the radio.

"Negative, sir."

"Team four, negative, Colonel."

"Huh. The Ancients had saran-wrap?" Tyler wondered as he examined what seemed to be some sort of mechanical pillar that was wrapped in something looking quite similar to the Earth product.

"Apparently so," Kira replied, her sharp gaze taking in the entire room for any possible threats.

"It's so much different from Goa'uld technology," Muki observed, gazing at the objects around her in fascination. "It's like the designs are… graceful, almost, no unnecessary decorations or anything."

Down below, the last people came through the Stargate. Weir took her radio and said into it, "General O'Neill? Atlantis Base offers you greetings from the Pegasus Galaxy. You may cut power to the gate now." Just before the blue portal disappeared, a bottle of champagne was rolled through from the other side.

Never ones to stay still for long, SG-13 soon started to explore. "Geez, aren't there any windows in this place?" Kira groused as she glanced around.

"Well, it could be this place is underground, like the outpost in Antarctica," Muki offered a rare moment of proper advice.

"You could be right there, Muki," Reece agreed. The door to the room they were about to go into opened automatically, something which was really starting to make the three uncomfortable. "Well Feldin, you got your window," the major said in a soft, awed tone as he saw said window.

His teammates came up behind him, shock entering their expressions.

"Chikushou _,_ " the self-proclaimed ninja murmured to herself.

"Well, it'd be a good bet this is Atlantis," Muki said.

The other two nodded as they stared out the window at the rest of the city underneath the waves.

"Hopefully that shield is pretty strong," Reece grumbled. "Death by drowning and/or suffocation is not very high on my "To-do" list."

"Nor anyone else's, I'm sure," his 2IC muttered, her voice stilted and her back stiff.

Suddenly Sumner's voice came over the radio. "All security teams, fall back to the gate room."

"Hey, this is not my fault so don't even  _try_  pinning it on me," Reece warned.

"No offense, but you're the main catalyst for Murphy's Law," Feldin retorted as they hurried back to the gate room.

As McKay dialed the gate to a random planet from the database, Sumner picked a group of military personnel, including Sheppard and SG-13, to accompany him to the planet to scout it for possible ZPMs.

As they stepped through the Stargate, Reece hoped that they'd be able to find something to help the city. Even in as short a time they had spent there, the city felt comforting, almost like home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation notes (using Google Translate for some of this stuff sorry ^^;):
> 
> Ahondara shousa: Japanese for "Major Airhead"
> 
> Kira-nee: Japanese informal title (indicating closeness/intimacy) for "older sister"; it's Muki's nickname for Kira, as it were. Why Muki knows Japanese when she's an alien will be explained eventually. In the meantime, it doesn't really have much bearing on the plot.
> 
> Imouto: Japanese for "younger sister"
> 
> Chikushou: Japanese for "Damn"


	4. Rising (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I may not be the best person to judge, but I'm pretty sure that space vampires aren't normal. At all. On the bright side, I could, and have, been stuck in cells with much less attractive company ;3
> 
> -Muki Huzanaka
> 
> Who taught her emoticons? I promise I won't hurt you. Much.
> 
> -Second Lieutenant Kira Feldin
> 
> Oh I will, I'll hurt you a _lot_. We're supposed to keep her away from computers, much less the internet!
> 
> -Major Tyler Reece

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the long-ass wait. Also, I edited the other chapters a teense. Nothing major, just making things less choppy, as well as adding some more descriptors of the characters bc there really wasn't much to describe their appearances before =-=;;

It was nearly pitch dark on the planet they came out on, hence the need for night-vision goggles for everyone. Although, so often Feldin knew  _exactly_  where things were that Tyler swore her DNA was less human than Fraiser and Area 51's tests let on.

As the group started to move out across the barren field, the sound of a branch snapping underfoot drew about their attention to the right. Quickly turning, Reece just caught the sight of someone running through the trees before they disappeared.

Signaling to Sheppard, his team, and another Marine, they cautiously made their way into the treeline.

Suddenly a young boy ran out in front of them. His face was fixed in an expression of utter horror as his hood fell back and he gaped at the gun-toting explorers.

"Rarrr!" A small figure wearing a crude mask jumped out into the small clearing, and tackled the other boy, who gave a small cry as he was propelled to the ground. Surprised, the Stargate explorers' grips on their guns tightened.

The mask on the second figure fell off to reveal a boy probably about one to two years younger than the other, who cried, "Don't hurt us!"

A tall man with a beard-  _Are those_  dreadlocks _?_  Reece wondered- ran through the trees to the two children. "Please, they're just playing!" he cried.

The noise and commotion had drawn the others of the exploration party over to them, and Sumner asked, "Everything okay here, Sheppard?"

"Yes, sir," he replied. "Just a couple of kids."

The tall man, Halling, led the Earth team along the dark path to the village, to meet his people's leader.

The place they were led to was run-down, and the buildings which made up the village barely qualified as hovels. In more than a few cases, people were residing in tents.

Sumner ordered several Marines to stake out the perimeter of the village, and a couple more to guard the gate, but when he came to what to do with SG-13, he fought against the urge to slam his head against the closest hard, flat surface.

Technically, Reece  _was_  third in the chain of command, so he probably should accompany himself and Sheppard to meet with this Emmagan guy who Halling said was their leader. Feldin was, if not useless, at least adequate, but there was something about her that just set him on edge. Put simply, he didn't trust her farther than he could throw her. And then there was Muki Huzanaka…

Sumner's left eye gave a slight twitch.

"Reece and Sheppard, you're with me. Ford, take Markham and Stackhouse and guard the gate. Everyone else, set up a perimeter. Make sure to keep an eye on the villagers; can't be too careful."

As it turned out, you  _could_  be too careful, but they weren't careful enough, because while Sheppard was flirting with Teyla, three pointed ships nearly literally screamed through the gate, and the whole situation started to go FUBAR pretty quickly.

"We are all going to die in a fiery ball of fire!" Kira shouted optimistically as she and the others on perimeter around the village started to fire at the incoming ships.

"Not helping!" Muki yelled back. She stopped shooting when a fleeing villager jostled her and almost made her shoot one of the Marines to her left. "Rude," she muttered to herself. She saw a ghostly shape in front of her and shot at it, but the bullets just went right through. "Um, we wouldn't happen to have any salt, would we?" she called, her voice tinged with a bit of fear.

"Why the fuck do we need salt?" Kira shouted back, concentrated on firing at the ships above them. "Are there are giant slugs around or something?"

Just then, Sheppard's voice came over the radio. "Colonel, the things on the ground are illusions; concentrate on the ships!"

"What things on the ground?" Kira muttered to herself as she spared a second to look around. She blinked rapidly at the sight of some ghostly figures. She turned to Muki. "Is that why you asked for salt?"

"Yeah!" the blonde replied. "But if they're not real-" As one of the ships passed over them, a white beam appeared and then Muki was gone.

Kira stared at the spot where the teen had been just a second earlier. "Shit." She had to quickly dive out of the way as one of the remaining ships screamed overhead, the white beam emanating from its belly taking all the people it touched. "Shit!"

"Sir, the colonel's been taken!" That bit of information over the radio made Kira's blood go cold, and she fumbled for her radio.

"Reece." There was no answer. "Reece, if you don't answer me right now…!" Silence. "Shit. Shit shit  _shit_!" She ran a hand down her face while half listening to the ongoing conversation. "Right." She forced down the worry and any other emotions present. "First get a hold of this situation, then find Reece and Muki." She promptly stalked over in the direction of the downed ship. Where there was wreckage there would be a body, and if said body was possibly still alive, well then it wouldn't be too out of line to demand some answers, now would it?

* * *

"Major Sheppard, who are these people?" Weir asked as the team returned with the villagers who remained after the attack.

"Survivors from the settlement," he replied. "We were attacked. Sumner and some of our people were taken." He looked around the room, which was shaking. "What's going on here?"

"We are in no condition to help anyone right now," she said in an undertone.

"What the hell's going on here?" Sheppard demanded.

"We are about to abandon the city."

"Listen, it's a  _really_  bad idea to go back there."

"Step away from the ring," Kira ordered some of the people who were huddled right in front of the Stargate. "Could be a fire hazard."

"Jinto!"

The boy who was just about glued to the redhead's side looked up. "Yes?"

"Do you have any other addresses we could gate to?" Sheppard asked.

Jinto nodded. "Yes, many." Sheppard grabbed his arm and they went up the stairs to the console used for dialing the Stargate.

"He's just a boy!" Weir protested.

The city continued to shake as the computer that McKay had somehow hooked up to the dialing device flashed a red warning of "SHIELD FAILURE IMMINENT", and the man barely had time to cry out a warning before there was a great jolt that threw everyone off their feet. Boxes and crates fell to the floor, and several people narrowly avoided being crushed or hit.

"I'm dialing an address!" the gate technician announced as he scrambled back to the chair he had previously been sitting on.

"Wait!" Weir shouted.

"No, she's right," McKay argued. The city was still shaking, but it was no longer stationary, and everyone struggled to keep from falling over yet again as the city shot up from its watery resting place.

Sunlight poured in through the windows, casting jagged beams of light from where it refracted through the sluicing water trails. "Gorgeous yet deadly," Kira muttered to herself as she eyed what she could see of the outside distrustfully.  _Note to self, get some anti-anxiety medication prescribed if necessary. Or marijuana. On second thought, no marijuana; don't want Muki getting a hold of that. Or Reece, come to think of it._

After the city had stabilized and they were no longer in immediate danger of drowning and/or being crushed by water (though Kira did not trust this to last in the least, mainly because water was evil evil  _evil_ ), McKay, Sheppard, and Weir went to go argue over how they were going to keep everyone from dying now that they had to time to actively worry about that sort of thing. Meanwhile Ford, as the current military 2IC, gave orders for everyone to get the supplies out of the way.

Roughly an hour later Kira spotted Sheppard and McKay coming out of the room where they had been talking with Weir, who was now exiting the room herself. They all went in separate directions, and Kira quickly moved to intercept Sheppard.

"Sir," she said as she fell in step with him, "we  _are_  going to launch a rescue mission, right?"

The major sighed. "Dr. Weir doesn't think it's a viable plan given the vulnerability of our current position, our forces not really being equipped for it, and the fact we aren't completely sure where they've been taken."

"Both my teammates are missing," Kira protested, barely keeping herself from getting in her superior officer's face. "As is Colonel Sumner," she added, mostly as an afterthought.

"And we're going to get them back," Sheppard said, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'll get through to Weir, I promise."

* * *

Muki wondered what it said about her life that she was used to waking up in strange places she wasn't even a bit familiar with. Usually cells of some sort, too. She looked around, taking note of the various people who were in the cell with her.  _Colonel Stick-Up-His-Ass sure looks mad,_  she thought.

"Tyler," she said aloud, gently prodding his unconscious form with her foot. Receiving only a mumbled "Demon spaghetti ate my seahorse", she sighed and then proceeded to drag him into a sitting position against the wall.

"Tyler," she repeated, louder this time, pinching his light brown cheeks for extra emphasis. "Wake  _up_ , sleepy head, or I'm going to have to resort to drastic and humiliating measures."

He opened his eyes and scowled at her. "What part of that did you not understand?"

"The part where you're more helpful awake and observing than trying to lull our hosts into a false sense of security," Muki replied dryly. "And hey, you've even got your boots this time!"

"Small favors," Tyler muttered as he stood. He took in Sumner scowling, Teyla Emmagan looking every inch a gorgeous, regal queen, and Private Jacobson trying to calm down a couple of Athosians who looked close to having full blown panic attacks. "Anyone know where we are?" he asked.

"Aboard a Wraith ship," Teyla said gravely.

"Wraith as in the space vampires you were telling us about?" His voice definitely did not squeak, not at all.

" _Space_   _vampires?_ " Jacobson exclaimed. "What the hell?"

"Apparently they come once every couple generations to cull their human herds," Sumner said dourly, and huh, Muki hadn't thought he could look more constipated.

"Remind me again what vampires are?" she asked Tyler quietly.

"Undead creatures that burn in the sun and feed off blood to live," he explained. "At least that's the mainstream version of them."

"But the Wraith do not feed off of blood," Teyla interjected. "They feed off your very life force, draining away your years until you are nothing more than a shriveled husk."

"That sounds quite charming," Muki commented in a small voice. A raspy laugh caught everyone's attention and they turned to find a gaunt, pale humanoid with sickly white hair on the other side of the cell door.

"I must say, I've never been called "charming" before," the creature chuckled, baring dirty fangs in a terrible smile. The teenager shrunk in on herself and Tyler stepped in front of her, one of his hands wrapped around her arm to bring her further behind him.

The Wraith merely smirked, then turned to the rest of the prisoners, surveying them in turn before resting on a trembling young Athosian man. "Bring him," the Wraith demanded.

Sumner stepped forward as the doors retracted into the wall. "I am Colonel Sumner and I demand you take me to your superior-" He was cut off as the masked Wraith who entered the cell hit him across the face with the butt of its weapon. Jacobson caught him as he went down.

"Take me in his stead!" Teyla pleaded as the masked Wraith grabbed the man that the other Wraith had singled out.

"You shall have your turn soon enough," the Wraith said with a sneer. It then turned with a dramatic flourish and stalked away with its companion and the young Athosian man, the cell doors furling closed.

"So, any ideas on how to kill vampires, or should we take a page out of Kira-nee's book and start breaking necks and stabbing kidneys?" Muki asked Tyler.

* * *

"Gateship 1, you are good to go," McKay informed the group that was assembled in one of the little ships they had found.

""Gateship 1"?" Sheppard said incredulously. "What kinda name is that for a little puddlejumper like this?"

"It's a gateship," McKay explained. "It's a ship that goes through the gate."

"It's what's making our rescue mission possible so could we just  _go_  already?" Kira asked exasperatedly.

There was a short silence before Sheppard said, "Control, this is Puddlejumper 1, we are a go."

"It's a ship, it goes through the gate," they heard McKay mutter, possibly having turned away from the radio, before they exited the Atlantis gate room and came out in orbit of a planet.

"Wish we had some kind of sensors," Sheppard muttered. Suddenly, a holographic display flickered in front of the window. The major reared back in surprise, no longer touching the controls.

"Whoa, how'd you do that?" Ford wondered.

"I just wanted it," Sheppard said. "I wish for a turkey sandwich." Nothing happened.

"Maybe you need to be touching something," Corporal Hernandez suggested.

"Worth a shot," Sheppard said. He put his hands back on the controls. "I wish we had a way to locate our people." A small drawer opened up, revealing a device about the size of a Gameboy.

Feldin took it out, startling a little as it suddenly turned on.

"There's a bunch of dots," she mused. "Six, actually." She looked up around the group, her icy blue eyes wide. "I think this is some kind of life detector."

"A life signs detector? Cool!" Ford grinned.

"It'll definitely be helpful," Sergeant Markham said, Sergeant Stackhouse nodding in agreement with him.

"Hopefully they're in all the ships and not just this one," Hernandez added, nodding towards the device.

The conversation was cut short as the sensors alerted them to a large ship on the planet below. Sheppard steered their ship down to a spot not too far away from the Wraith ship, but still out of sight.

"Hernandez, Stackhouse, Markham, Feldin, you'll stay with the ship while Ford and I go look for Colonel Sumner and the others," Sheppard outlined the plan as they exited the ship.

"Given that my team is in there, I should go with you," Kira protested.

"The two of us are the only ones who can fly the ship, and if something happens to me then you need to make sure we're still able to get out of here," Sheppard said.

"And what if some of them aren't able to move by themselves?" Kira challenged.

"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it, and I don't like the tone you're taking  _Lieutenant_ ," Sheppard emphasized her rank.

"Sir!" Kira started heatedly before she reined herself in. "Sir, they're the closest thing I have to family."

After a tense moment, Sheppard nodded curtly. "Fine. Let's go," he ordered, and Ford and Feldin fell in line to flank him as they set off towards the Wraith ship.

Meanwhile, Tyler was doing a marvelous job of not hyperventilating after the Wraith came back and took Sumner this time. The man had looked so resigned and grim as he nodded at Reece and said, "You're in charge now Major."

Oh yeah,  _that_  made him feel a whole lot better. Like anyone was going to pay attention to anything he said or did while they were all terrified. Well, except for Muki but that was more from habit than anything else.

Speaking of...

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Keeping watch," she replied from where she was practically plastered against the webbing like material that made up the doors. "Gotta be ready for the rescue party, right?"

Tyler patted her on the shoulder, the only comfort he was able to offer at the moment with so many people present. "Yeah, knowing Feldin we'll probably have to suffer through some grueling, sadistic thing she calls "training" because we're so incompetent, getting ourselves captured like this, and when she was insert age here, she was off crippling deadbeats who couldn't pay their debts or something." Muki laughed, teeth bright against her dark face, and Tyler smiled.

"Who are you talking about?" Jacobson wondered.

"Kira-nee," Muki said while Tyler replied, "Feldin. Red hair, short, crankiest thing this side of the galaxy?"

"I take offense to that," Kira said, her and Ford ghosting into view. "I am not that short, and I am not that predictable at monologing, mainly because I don't monologue."

"Sometimes you do," Muki insisted. "You're gorgeous when you get all passionate though."

"Thanks," Kira said, rolling her eyes. She had a small smile though, as she looked her team over. "You guys all right?"

"Just terrified because these guys eat people and that is messed up on so many levels," Tyler informed her. "Also, shouldn't Major Sheppard be here? Please don't tell me I'm the new military head," he begged.

"Calm down," she told him, turning so she could watch the hallway. "Major Sheppard went to check out some screaming we heard from the direction of a lone life sign. There were more this way so we separated."

"That must have been Colonel Sumner," Jacobson said shakily.

"Wait, life sign?" Tyler wondered.

"Yeah, found a nifty life sign detector in one of the puddlejumpers," Ford said from where he was looking for a control panel with his scope light.

"Is that what we're really calling them?" Kira asked.

Ford shrugged. "It's catchy." He frowned as he looked over the fleshy wall.

"Lost here," Muki said, raising her hand a little. "What are puddlejumpers?"

"Some little ships we found in Atlantis," Kira said.

"You only detected one life sign?" Teyla asked, looking somber as she came to the forefront of the cell. Kira nodded, and Teyla bowed her head a little. "Toran is dead then."

"Sumner wasn't the first one the Wraith took," Tyler explained grimly.

"My condolences," Kira told Teyla. "Also, are you Teyla Emmagan?"

"I am."

"Your people will be glad to have you back," Kira said. "They're really worried."

"There's nothing here to open the doors," Ford announced as he dug into the top left breast pocket of his TAC vest. "We'll have to blow it."

"Explosions!" Muki exclaimed with a grin. "A man after my own heart." Ford ducked his head in embarrassment.

"You know what you're doing?" Kira asked, eyes narrowed even more than usual.

"Best marks in my class," Ford declared confidently.

"Okay, everyone back against the far side," Tyler directed, herding everyone to the back of the cell away from the door. "This is gonna be loud," he warned.

One muffled boom later, the doors were rent open and everyone quickly shuffled out. "Most of the Wraith are hibernating in some super creepy cocoons," Kira said as she handed Tyler her handgun. "So long as we're quiet until we get out, we should be good."

"Until we get out?" Tyler asked warily, double checking the clip. "What happens after we get out?"

"We blow this place to kingdom come!" Major Sheppard exclaimed as he ran up to the group from an adjoining hallway. He did a double take. "Ford, how'd you get here so fast?"

"Sir?" the lieutenant asked, confused.

"Seriously, you must have double timed it," Sheppard said, glancing over the group. "Here," he handed Jacobson his sidearm and fell in step with him, the two covering the group's back.

"Sir, I went with Lt. Feldin to the cells. I planted some C4 along the way but we didn't split at all," Ford reported with a frown.

"Well, then someone who bore a striking resemblance to you got me out of a bit of a tight spot," Sheppard said tersely, jaw clenched.

"Sir, where's Colonel Sumner?" Jacobson asked nervously.

"Dead," was all Sheppard could say before an ear splitting alarm sounded throughout the entirety of the ship. "And they're pissed I killed the lady who killed him!"

"You killed a  _Queen_?" Teyla exclaimed, her eyes wide.

"Yeah, pretty sure anyways since I don't know much that can come back from having the head blown off," Sheppard shouted to be heard above the alarm.

They exited the Wraith ship, running as fast as they could with Ford and Kira in front. Roughly halfway to the puddlejumper, Ford pressed the C4 detonator.

The resulting explosion was tremendous as over half the Wraith ship went up in flames.

"Holy shit!" Jacobson yelped.

"Nice job Lieutenant," Sheppard said, clapping a hand against Ford's shoulder before he went ahead of the whole group, giving orders to Hernandez, Stackhouse, and Markham as he headed to the pilot seat.

"Thanks?" Ford replied helplessly, looking terribly confused.

Everyone scurried into the puddlejumper, Ford, Reece, and Hernandez in the front portion with Sheppard while everyone else was packed into the back. After making sure everyone was all right, Sheppard cloaked and took off, rising past the burning Wraith ship, through the atmosphere, and finally into space.

"I don't think we're past the hard part yet!" Sheppard said through gritted teeth at the sight of several Wraith fighters stationed near the Stargate.

"We're fine so long as they don't see us, right?" Ford asked nervously.

"They don't have to," Tyler replied grimly, hand tightly gripping the back of the left pilot's chair. "We've only got one place to go, though how we're going to get through without a DHD-"

"There's one built in," Hernandez informed him, gesturing to the raised panel between the two chairs.

"Nice," Tyler said, nodding in approval.

"Glad you're enjoying the decor," Kira snarked from behind him. Tyler rolled his eyes.

"We activate the Stargate and they'll just blow us away, cloaked or not," Sheppard said. "We'll have to draw them away, then double back. Everyone hold on!" he ordered. "We're gonna have to do some fancy flying!"

The moment the ship uncloaked four of the of the fighters went to follow, leaving two guarding the gate. Immediately Sheppard veered away from the gate, leading the ships away, swerving to avoid being hit by the Wraith firing on them.

"Jihibukai Kannon," Kira muttered, grabbing at Tyler to remain upright while Sheppard performed a couple of crazy maneuvers she was fairly certain shouldn't have been possible if they weren't in space. Everyone not in chairs scrabbled at the walls and each other in an attempt to keep from falling down. Muki clung to both of them, her grip tightening even further as the puddlejumper just barely managed to avoid crashing into a Wraith fighter, Sheppard's game of Chicken successful as two fighters collided.

After finding the weapons, Sheppard fired drones, identical to the one that had been fired at the Ancient outpost, at one of the pursuing fighters, blowing it up before heading back towards the gate.

"Try to go invisible again!" Hernandez urged from behind Ford's chair.

"It must be damaged. Dial the gate!" Sheppard ordered, and Ford swiftly complied before getting out his GDO. The two fighters guarding the gate broke from their positions and headed towards the puddlejumper. One met an explosive end courtesy of more drones, while the other barely avoided getting blown up, continuing to fire on the puddlejumper until it was also blown up a moment later.

The remaining fighter continued to fire, several of its missed shots going through the gate. "Send your code!" Tyler snapped.

"We're going too fast!" Ford protested even as he punched in his IDC.

"I know," Sheppard said. He retracted the engines just before hitting the wormhole's event horizon and the ship plunged through the gate, coming to a stop just inside the gateroom that was so swift everyone lurched forward a bit, though no one was seriously hurt.

There was a large "thud" against the shield that had activated right after they came through, the last Wraith fighter destroyed.

Muki laughed breathlessly. "We're alive!" She didn't let go of Kira or Tyler, instead shifting so she could grab both of them in a tight hug. "Gods, that was terrifying."

"Very," Tyler agreed, his chin resting on Muki's head and Kira's head smushed between Muki's arm and Tyler's chest. "On the bright side, we survived our first dogfight in space."

"If either of you disappear on me like that again, there will be  _dire_  consequences," Kira warned, somewhat muffled, but with a hint of a smile on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation notes (a la Google translate; if I am wrong pls correct me!):
> 
> Jihibukai Kannon: Japanese for "merciful Kannon"; Kannon is the Japanese name for Guanyin, an East Asian deity of mercy whose various forms usually involve protection. Kira isn't monotheistic, so her saying "Oh God" wouldn't really be appropriate.


End file.
